LSU impresses Richt

Ben LovePublisher, TigerSportsDigest

With less than a week to go before LSU invades Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia coach Mark Richt shared his thoughts on the 2013 Tigers. Richt opened up on the improved LSU offense, the defense under John Chavis and what it'll be like for his team to face former Bulldog Zach Mettenberger.

Georgia coach Mark Richt addressed members of the media Sunday afternoon during his weekly teleconference.

Richt spoke to multiple facets of LSU's team in advance of this Saturday's SEC showdown in Athens. Among the topics Richt discussed: his impressions of the improved LSU offense, the Tigers' defense under John Chavis and how he and his team will approach going up against former Bulldog Zach Mettenberger.

Here were all of Richt's comments and analysis of LSU below.

ON THE LSU OFFENSE

"There's no doubt about it, they've been great. They're not going to try to trick you. They're just going to line up and maul you; that's their goal. Then they'll create some good matchups with some great receivers and a quarterback who can sling it. They are very balanced in what they do, and they can do both equally well."

ON THE LSU DEFENSE

Specifically on John Chavis defenses: "Just really good, sound fundamental football. His guys know what to do, and his guys play hard. Of course (there's) the personnel he's been able to attract and obviously that LSU has been able to attract with him there. When he was at Tennessee, too, they attracted great players that wanted to play for him. It's a combination of great players and great coaching."

More on Chavis' style: "When you think about it, what do most coaches say when they have a bad game or things don't go well? We've got to go back to basics or go back to the fundamentals, go back to learning how to tackle better and do things better like playing with a lower pad level or using your hands better or gap control, those kinds of things. All those things that meant something 20 or 30 years ago on defense mean something today … All those things that some people think is old school, it's just mandatory to have a good defense. He's a great teacher of it."

ON ZACH METTENBERGER

When asked about facing former player: "I won't bring it up, other than (that we're) trying to defend a quarterback who happens to be Zach Mettenberger. We're not going to be worried so much that he's Zach Mettenberger as much as he's 6-foot-5, 230-something pounds and can sling it. We just want to do the best we can to defend him and defend their offense, but I'm not going to get into anything other than he's an opponent that we're trying to defeat."

Differences he sees in Mettenberger: "There are a lot of things that are similar as far as just his physical size and his ability to throw the ball. We had him in some summer camps when he was in high school, and we knew he was going to have a really big-league arm. So he still has that, and obviously he's gotten better over time. He seems very confident right now. He's playing on a great team with some great backs and receivers and some big strong linemen up front, and I'm sure he's benefitting from his new coordinator. They're winning and they're excited, and he's one of the top-rated passers in America right now."

On this week for Zach's mother, Tammy, who works on the Georgia staff: "She loves her son, obviously. It would be awkward for her to be hanging around all week. She won't be in this week. I told her to enjoy it, go have fun and do some things that you normally wouldn't do this time of year. We've been knowing Zach since he was a very young kid, and we all really like Zach and want the best for him. We just don't want him to win the game this weekend. That's about the only thing that's different than normal is that we're competing against him this week."

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